NPC Interaction in Agent of Strange

Hi! This is Sever Studio.

Today we’d like to talk about how interaction with NPCs works in our game.

First of all, one of the key features of our dialogue system is that NPCs have their own motives and goals. These don’t necessarily include helping everyone — and they certainly don’t see themselves as a walking help desk for the player character. In a more conventional RPG, NPCs are usually happy to answer any question you throw at them.

In our game, however, many questions can raise suspicion. And that’s part of the mechanic: asking suspicious questions will provoke an appropriate reaction. This is just one example of how we aim to make characters independent from the player and living their own lives.

Secondly, many NPCs reappear throughout the game. We’re creating a story about a city, not a journey where you constantly leave characters behind. They are tied to specific locations, but may show up in different contexts. Not in a “the shopkeeper goes to sleep to simulate a daily routine” kind of way. Each NPC has their own backstory, carefully written by us, their own name, and their own relationships with other NPCs. All the details that don’t make it directly into the game will be shared in our publications — and there’s plenty there to laugh about, and plenty to sympathize with as well.

Our game is not about simulating everyday life. What we mean is this: you might meet a character in a shop, and later encounter the same person in a restaurant. It’s still the same individual, and your relationship with them persists and continues to evolve.

We approach dialogue as action. Your words matter just as much as your physical acts. They can change how others perceive you, influence a situation, resolve it — or make it even more complicated.

Every dialogue is a situation with its own dramatic development and resolution.

And like so much else in our game, everything ultimately depends on your decisions, dear players.